Welcome Home Ms Potts
by theaterinspired
Summary: The reunion between Pepper and Tony after the mission. Its as simple as that... Until it leads to Pepper meeting all of the other Avengers.
1. Chapter 1

**Hooray! My first Avenger's Fic! WHOO! So my love of the Avengers goes to my sister and my love of Iron Man and all related topics is thanks to Apple and the fact that it was the only movie I could afford when I was bored in my dorm one weekend. So I have read a bunch of fics that try to address Pepper and Tony after the movie concerning the events of the movie, but I'm picky and wanted to see how well I could do. So here is that attempt. Thanks to my sister for helping me with this, the people who made the Shawarma I tried for the first time today which inspired me to finish this, my boyfriend for tolerating my major obsession with Iron Man that he will never understand, and to those who review to tell me what to work on. I want to write more Avengers fics but won't unless I hear from you.**

**To the Avengers: I do not own you. I do not wish to own you… okay, I wish to own an arc reactor. OTHERWISE I'll just leave the heroics to you.**

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Pepper took a deep breath as she walked up to Stark Tower, or at least what was left of it. She had seen the news footage. It was hard not to have seen the tapes to be honest. They were everywhere really. She had of course silently prayed that Tony was okay, that the suit did as it was supposed to and that it kept him safe. And it had worked… that is until she saw the missed call. He only ever called her when he was Iron Man if something was wrong… or could go wrong. But she had talked herself down. Again, she was fine and kept telling herself that he was alive and well.

Then she saw the footage of him going through the portal and her heart had stopped. He had talked about equipping the suit for in space flight, but she was under the impression that he hadn't quite figured it out yet. She had tried to tell herself that it was possible he had done it really recently and maybe her knowledge was incomplete or something.

But then she saw him falling from the sky. Pepper could feel her heart breaking as she watched his unresponsive body fall through the air. She closed her eyes and tried to block it all out, until she heard a flight attendant yell "oh thank god". Pepper had opened her eyes and saw him on the ground. The reporters were shouting "he made it" into their microphones as their emotions took the best of them.

She had called him of course as soon as she got off of the plane.

"Pepper, I'm okay." He had answered the phone.

"How badly are you scratched up?" she asked, cutting right to it. "There's no way you are perfectly fine after that adventure."

"I'm going to be sore tomorrow. And the suit needs a ton of repairs. But other than some cuts and bruises I'm fine."

"Will you be okay without me for a couple of days? I'll come home as soon as I can. But you're okay for a couple of days, right?"

"Yeah, I'll manage," he had said. She could practically hear the snarky smile on his face. That helped her to breathe easier. He really was okay.

"Would that be all Mr. Stark?"

"Technically you called me so I'm not sure why you are asking me. But yes, that would be all Ms. Potts"

The week went by painfully slowly. He had called her daily with some excuse "Where do you keep the Clorox wipes?" or "what is the best dry cleaner close by?". She knew that he was using it as an excuse to make sure she was okay but also to help her feel better about not being there to make sure he was okay.

But now that she was standing in front of the tower, she was shocked. The place still appeared as if it hadn't been touched in terms of repairs. She shouldn't have been shocked, if the suit had needed as many repairs as it seemed it needed, then it was likely he had been focused on that and nothing else.

Pepper walked through the building to the elevator. She got on and punched in the number for the pent house. The elevator started to move and the automated voice came on "Welcome home, Ms. Potts."

"Thank you JARVIS," she replied as the elevator beeped, announcing her arrival on the penthouse floor.

She walked out and saw him across the room. He was standing at the bar, in all of its now chipped and cracked glory, with a coffee cup and tablet in his hand. His back was to her but she could tell from his hunched stance that he was tired. Probably from lack of sleep again, or perhaps another mission she didn't know about yet.

Pepper decided that there was no need to rush into conversation. Besides, what was she supposed to say to him? "Glad to see you didn't kill yourself this time"? To allow herself time to think about how best to proceed, she walked over to the couch and piled her bags by the end of it. She turned around and was not surprised to see that the multi-millionaire didn't seem bothered by her arrival at all.

She walked over to him by the bar, her heels clicking on the floor as she went. Pepper walked around the bar so that she could see what was holding the man's attention. It looked to Pepper as if it was blue prints for some new building design, but she could never be sure with him.

"I assure you, this isn't that interesting" Tony Stark finally said.

"Looking to fix this place up I hope," she asked knowing fully well that that wasn't the case.

"More like looking for plans for that place in DC we were talking about before you left" answered Tony as he closed the program. "We can't go putting things off now can we? Seize the day…and… what not"

"Why? Suddenly concerned with getting things accomplished before you end up dead again?" Pepper shot with a raise of an eyebrow. Then her eyes grew wide as she remembered what had caused the last spell of random heroics and situations that were more than slightly dangerous. "You aren't dy-"

Mr. Stark interrupted her, "No! No, I'm not dying… well, not more than anyone else I guess."

"Well, you do seem to find yourself in more life threatening situations than the average person."

"Goes with the territory. You know, of being a hero and all…"

"I thought you had denied the whole 'hero' thing."

"I think after flying through a portal with a nuke on my back I might have a right to…"

"You mean after you almost died! AGAIN! Dying isn't heroism Tony!"

Silence filled the room. His snarky comments had been squelched by her frustration. She glared at him, upset that he didn't seem to understand it. She needed him as much as he needed her. Maybe she even needed him more. It was hard to tell.

"Pep, I never said it was…" Tony tried to reason as he walked around the bar to her side.

"Why did you call?" Pepper turned, "Why did you call me?"

"You know why." Tony said as he tried to get a read on the woman. "I wanted to tell you I cared about you and I was sorry that things were… are hard for you. I wanted to tell you that it was my call and no matter what happened I was okay with it."

Pepper began to tear up and worked hard to hold them back, "You called to tell me that you wanted to die? Is that it? Are you suicidal?"

"No, no, no," back peddled Tony, "That's not what I meant. I meant that I had wanted to be happy…"

"Happy? So you called me to help you feel at peace with what you were doing? So help me, I need… "

"Pepper!" Tony Stark grabbed her arms, closed his eyes and took a deep breath, "Can I finish a thought here?" Pepper nodded in agreement, shocked by the sudden contact. "I called, because I wanted you to be there. You are always there when I need you and I had just wanted to hear your voice.

"You have every right to be mad at me. Flying through a portal into space with an armed nuclear missile was a risky move and no one could help me out of that."

Pepper pushed back against him, breaking away. She looked at his face and could see the truth from his words in his brown, tired eyes. She turned away from him, trying to keep her tears from getting the best of her. He stood there and just watched her, not wanting to make the wrong move and upset her even more.

"I left for DC thinking that it would ultimately be the best way to keep you safe. I thought that that way I wouldn't distract you once you decided to get involved," Pepper said. "I should have been the last thing on your mind while you were fighting those… things."

"Now that, my Dear Pepper Potts, doesn't make sense."

She turned again to confront him only to find him leaning lazily up against the bar, "I don't understand…"

Tony jokingly rolled his eyes, "Well think about it. If you had been here, then you would have been able to prevent me from going on that mission, so to speak."

"Okay" Pepper responded slowly, not sure where the genius was taking this train of thought.

"But of course, if I hadn't gone, then the entire city of Manhattan would be demolished, but at least I wouldn't have been a part of the fight. You could take pride in that. Well, for the fraction of a second you were still alive that is."

"I…"

"Then I would be dead anyway. But hey, at least it wouldn't have been from my own 'stupidity' as you called it. Oh, and a million people would be dead too, can't forget them." He looked down towards the floor, looking at the arc reactor's glow through his shirt. Pepper knew he was thinking something that she knew he didn't want to share openly but she had no idea what. Tony mumbled something so that Pepper could just barely hear it. She played it back a few times in her head until she finally found out what he had said: "You'd be dead in that scenario too."

Pepper stood there and looked at her feet, not quite sure how to respond. He was right of course. She had learned that over time, the great Tony Stark always had reasons for the choices he made, even though they were not always obvious to other people at the time. She was no exception. True, over the years she had learned much about the man: he liked late nights and early morning. He took his coffee black and his other drinks alcoholic. He believed that the world was full of answers, if only you knew where to look. And even though she understood him better than most, she still couldn't read his mind.

Tony grabbed her by the waist and pulled her in to him. He wrapped his arms around her and just stood there giving her a hug. Pepper relaxed into him, returning the embrace. "Welcome home."

Pepper responded with a small smile, "It's good to be back."

"Things have been a mess since you haven't been here," Tony smiled.

"Like what?"

"Well, I don't know if you have noticed, but someone has completely trashed this place."

"I have noticed," Pepper said. "I figured you can tell me in the morning what all needs to be fixed and I'll get people on it. It shouldn't take too terribly long to fix it all up to new again."

"Sounds like a plan," Tony said.

Pepper thought about how she had left things and that lead to thought about Phil. She hadn't heard from him since she had last seen him when he dropped her off at the airport. "So how is Agent Coulson? Did he enjoy your little performance?"

Tony grew silent and Pepper felt his body tense up for a minute as he pulled her in tighter for a moment. He then pulled back and brown eyes met green. She realized his eyes were full of regret, a look she hadn't seen in a long time. "We can talk about that later. What's important is that you are home."

"Sir," JARVIS beeped in. "Doctor Banner requests your presence downstairs in lab 7. He says that he needs help with getting through SHEILD's firewall."

"Doctor Banner?" Pepper asked.

"Yeah, tell him I am on my way," Tony said as he pulled away from Pepper.

"Who is Doctor Banner? And why does he want to get through a fire wall? That's illegal isn't it?"

"You would know him as The Hulk," Tony answered. "He's a friend."

Pepper looked doubtfully "Friend? You have a friend…"

"Yes,!" Tony teased. "Even though the Star-Spangled Tight-Wearing Grandpa might say otherwise, I can make friends."

"I don't know who you are talking about and that's okay for right now." Pepper said with a smile. "How about I make some early-morning-waffles and bring them down to you two?"

Tony beamed and kissed Pepper on the head as he passed her to grab two new cups of coffee, "That sounds wonderful."

Pepper turned and watched as the brilliant inventor walked to the elevator, a new spring in his step it seemed. She smiled, glad to see that he was very much okay after all of that chaos.

Before she could stop herself, she asked "Will that be all Mr. Stark?"

The elevator opened and Tony walked into it. He turned around and gave her a dazzling smile that had caused thousands of women to fall for the man, "That would be all Ms. Potts."

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**Ta-da! That's all there is so don't go sending me a request to write more of this fic. HOWEVER, feel free and encouraged to write to me to say that I should write more Avengers (and if you have ideas let me know). Please REVIEW and tell me how I did. I love you all!... although not as much as I like Tony Stark… but he's with Pepper so its okay.**

**EDIT: so after I posted this, it was suggested that i turn this into a fic where Pepper meets all of the Avengers... and that sounds like too much fun for me to pass up. So I shall work on it! I LOVE YOU UNIVERSE!**


	2. Chapter 2

**Hooray for chapter 2! This was a lot of fun. I wrote half of this at starbucks and the other half at the high school parking lot while I transported my sister back and forth across town and performances. So in was interesting to say the least. This story is making me insanely happy because it is a fic I really like to write. So enough babble. REMEMBER: review. Tell me what you think. IM TALKING TO YOU MISS-IM-JUST-GONNA-SUBSCRIBE-BUT-NOT-REVIEW!**

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Pepper Potts worked hard at everything she did. And making waffles at one in the morning was not an exception. Having to find everything was a pain, but with the help of Jarvis she was able to locate all of the necessary equipment. It took her a minute to decide which recipe she could make using what they had there, but she soon figured it out. She even added the addition of some fresh blueberries on top to add some health benefits to the meal. She had learned early on when working for Tony that if she wanted him to eat healthy she had to disguise it well. She would take the upperhand whenever possible when it came to Tony Stark's diet.

Pepper walked into the elevator with the two plates of piping hot waffles. Once the doors closed, she let out a deep breath to steady herself. It had been a long day and based off of how Tony had acted earlier it was clear that he wasn't about to let her slink off to bed anytime soon.

The elevator dinged, announcing her arrival on the correct floor. However the doors remained closed. Pepper smiled, glad to see that the security system seemed to be working just fine. She placed one of the waffles carefully on the floor and reached up to the buttons on the elevator. Unlike most elevators in the world, the one in Stark Tower was as unique as the Arc Reactor powering the place. Although Jarvis could take the elevator to the correct floor without much direction, he couldn't open the doors on certain floors. That's where the buttons came in handy. The buttons were actually a key pad in which a person would have to enter the correct sequence in order to get on to the more private floors. The more secure the floor, the harder the sequence was. Naturally Tony had been insistent that all of the labs have complex combinations. Pepper pressed the complicated series of buttons being glad that she had spent the time to memorize the different floor patterns. After pressing a grand total of fifteen buttons, the doors finally opened allowing Pepper to enter the floor. She grabbed the waffle on the floor and walked in with a smile.

"No, no, no the left," Pepper heard a man say. There was a crash followed by a small moan that was recognizable as Tony's. "The other left."

"You could have told me that sooner," Tony said with a grunt.

"I apologize. I didn't realize you meant you were going to do it right that second."

"Boys," Pepper interrupted. "I brought waffles."

Tony bounced out from behind a set of shelves set up in the middle of the room. "Come on big man, time for food. When was the last time you ate anyway?"

"Unlike you I actually did have dinner," the voice said. A man with a lavender shirt with the sleeves rolled up and dark grey slacks came out from around the corner. His hair was dark, and he had wire glasses on that Pepper couldn't help but describe as "cute" as one might call a puppy. She assumed this must be Dr. Banner.

"Oh yeah," Tony challenged, "What did you have? Half a doughnut you forgot about?" Tony bounced over to Pepper and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek as he took one of the plates from her.

"It's still more than you technically speaking." Dr. Banner said as he came over to accept the waffles.

"Where are my manners?" Tony said, "Bruce, I'd like to introduce you to Miss Pepper Potts. And Pepper, this is Doctor Bruce Banner."

Pepper smiled and reached out to shake the man's hand, "it's nice to meet you doctor."

"Likewise. Welcome home Miss Potts." Pepper couldn't help but find the man's timidness a little odd. If the great Tony Stark had not only allowed for you into the lab, but allowed for you to use it for your own projects, you had to be really smart. Tony was, after all, very protective of his private labs.

Then she remembered, this was not only just a friend of Tony's, but a fellow hero in the battle that had terrorized NYC. And actually, this was the person she had to thank for the safe arrival of the great Iron Man. Without Banner, Tony wouldn't have made it and this would be a completely different situation all the way around.

Pepper couldn't understand how this man grew into the big green Hulk that she had seen in the footage. That guy had looked to be about four times the size of the man who stood in front of her. How did the green being that seemed as if he could snap a person like a twig turn into this small meek man that barely wanted to look her in the eye? She knew from the little research she had read over Tony's shoulder that the Hulk only made himself known after some sort of trigger was set off. What could trigger the transformation?

She watched as Banner and Stark ate their waffles as they stared at some experiment's readings or something. The more she thought about what she knew about the Hulk, or rather what she didn't know, the more she realized she should probably be afraid of the guy. Maybe that was why Banner seemed hesitant, he knew she should be afraid. And yet, she wasn't really. Tony wouldn't have brought him here if he thought it was a bad idea. And if Tony thought that Banner was safe, then Pepper could trust that.

Pepper snapped out of her thoughts, "How has Tony been treating you? Surely he has remembered at least some of his manners."

Tony pretended to be offended, "I know how to treat guests. I am feeding the man am I not?"

"Technically I brought the food," Pepper reminded him.

Tony waved it off. Banner smiled, "Not to worry, Tony has taken care of me. And then some. I hear that I have you to thank for the existence of these labs. They really are very nice."

"Not that you have had much to compare it to," Tony said with a mouth full of waffle. "He was in Calcutta before SHEILD dragged him back to the States."

"What were you doing in Calcutta?" Pepper asked. The more she learned about Banner the safer she felt having him in the tower.

Banner shrugged as he stabbed his waffle a few times, "Just… helping as I could while staying out of trouble."

"Did you like it there?"

"Well," Banner laughed coldly, "I liked it more than most people in the US would. I had a purpose for being there. It helped to make things… easier for everyone."

"Would you go back?"

This question gave Banner pause. Even Tony stopped, apparently intrigued. "If the situation came up that going back made sense, then yes," Banner eventually answered.

Pepper nodded; she knew the feeling all too well. "So what have you two been up to? It sounds like whatever it is, it has sure kept you busy."

Banner looked at Tony, clearly not sure what to say. Tony put his empty plate down on the table and looked at the monitor in front of him. "We've been working on a bunch of things. Bruce wanted to try and find a cure to a disease he encountered in Calcutta."

"But we couldn't find much research without a security clearance. It seems like someone doesn't want anyone looking too far into it," Banner said as he looked away, clearly distracted with something.

Tony patted Bruce on the back, "So I broke through SHEILD's firewall and got their passwords to access the data. Everything we need to know will be at our fingertips once Jarvis finishes getting through the system."

"Whoa, wait a minute," Pepper said, her eyes growing big. "You hacked into SHEILD?"

Mr. Stark smirked. "You say that like it's the first time I've done it."

Pepper shook her head in disbelief. "Just because you have done this before does not mean it's less bad!"

"It's for a good cause, Pep."

Well, she couldn't argue with that, now could she?

Just then, Jarvis beeped, "Sir, we have successfully downloaded the files which you requested. Shall I display them on the monitor?"

Tony nodded, "Please do."

"And sir? Mister Barton is calling. He sounds rather frustrated. Shall I put him through?"

Banner laughed. "Only Clint would be calling at two in the morning."

Tony's eyes were busy darting back and forth across the screen in front of him. "No, Jarvis. Tell him I'm asleep."

Jarvis was silent for a minute, and then came back, "Sir, he is insistent. He claims to know that you are indeed awake and that if someone doesn't take his call he will march over here and deal with things himself."

"Wonder what's bothering him…"

"Jarvis, tell him I'll call him in the morning."

"Sir, he says that this is technically in the morning."

"I'll call him back."

"He said that he would believe that when Director Fury showed up to work in a pink…"

"Stark just take the call, what if it's important?"

"I'm not going to let Odysseus tell me what to do…"

Pepper reached into her pocket and pulled out her blue tooth. "Guys, how about I just take care of it? Jarvis, patch him through to me."

She took a few steps away from the guys before she talked into the headset, "Hello?"

"Who is this?" A gruff voice demanded.

"This is Pepper Potts. May I ask who you are?"

"Oh," Clint said, clearly losing some of his professionalism. "This is Agent Clint Barton. I… worked with Tony with the New York thing."

"Nice to meet you Agent Barton," Pepper said.

Clint regained his composure, "May I please speak to Mr. Stark?"

Pepper sighed, "Unfortunately Mr. Stark is unavailable at the moment. May I take a message for you?"

"No ma'am. I have to talk directly to Stark and I have to do it now."

"Well I'm sorry but I can't…"

"Okay, I get it. Look, we know that Tony hacked into SHIELD and we need him to stop it. We can't have him just hacking his way into our most secure files."

"I understand…"

"Listen," Agent Barton sighed, and his tone became hushed, "Tell Stark that if he needs something he can just tell me or Natasha and we'll see what we can do for him."

"I'll tell him," Pepper said. "Although I'll be honest, I don't know if he will listen. If you want him to stay away from your 'secure files' you might want to upgrade your firewall or something."

Barton sighed, "We're working on it. Sadly Tony can hack faster than we can upgrade."

Pepper nodded, she had heard that story before. "I'll give him the message. Anything else, Agent Barton?"

"No, that's all."

"Well it was nice talking with you," Pepper said with her natural professionalism that many only dreamed they could have.

"Likewise, although I wish it was under better circumstances. We'll be in touch if this problem isn't fixed."

"Sounds like a plan."

"Oh, and welcome home Miss Potts," the phone clicked ending the call.

Pepper sighed and went back to where the two scientists were working. Both were currently scanning the screens in front of them, their eyes darting back and forth like a type writer.

"Tony," Pepper called. She waited until the billionaire looked at her before she continued, "Agent Barton said that SHIELD knows you hacked them and that they aren't happy. They request that you stop or they will have to intervene."

"Was it just me or did he seem more… direct tonight than normal?" Tony said.

Banner shrugged, "I'm sure he's just stressed. SHIELD has been busy cleaning up New York and I'm sure Fury wasn't happy with your hacking."

"Wait, were you guys listening in?" Pepper asked as she processed the conversation between the two men. "What? Are you now hacking phones as well as computers?"

Tony rolled his eyes and muttered, "If they don't want me in their systems they shouldn't make it so easy to get into."

Banner laughed, "I'm sure they are doing the best they can to keep you out of their stuff."

Pepper looked at the clock and yawned. It was two thirty in the morning. She should have been in bed hours ago.

Just then, there was a knock at the elevator door. The trio turned around and stared at the sliding doors. _Who knocks in an elevator?_ Pepper thought. _Or more importantly…_

"Who's in the elevator?" Pepper asked in a whisper.

"Jarvis?" Tony called, only to be met with silence. The knocking got harder causing everyone's eyes to grow larger, "Jarvis!"

"What happened to Jarvis?" Bruce asked.

Tony Stark's face remained stone still, which Pepper knew meant he was thinking very fast. "Tony? What's going on?" Pepper asked.

"Security Breach."

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**Now, my friends, you have learned just how horrible I can be when it comes to cliff hangers and what not. So your job right now is to REVIEW THIS TO KINGDOM COME! Hehehe *maniacal laugh***

**ps: did you catch the blueberry thing? do i get points for that? if so, REVIEW!**


	3. Chapter 3

**So a ton has happened since I last posted. First of all, thank you to everyone that has favorite/followed this story. Those emails truly make my day. Second, I apologize that it has taken so long for me to post this chapter. School is crazy busy when you have 18 credit hours on your plate. Third of all, this chapter is dedicated to Shadow, my dog that passed away on 4/6/2013. And to my sister: hopefully this makes you smile at least a little. Another thing to note is that there are spoilers in here for Iron Man 2 and the Avengers. Don't say I didn't warn you. Lastly, please send me a review. Pretty please?**

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"Security breach?" Pepper asked, her voice becoming higher pitched. It was too early in the morning for this kind of action. She didn't want to have to deal with this, especially since she just had gotten home and had yet to find her way to that lovely bed she had missed so dearly.

Tony Stark looked her in the eyes and mouthed "stay here." He crept over towards the door cautiously. He paused at the door before he knocked back. "Hello?"

The three in the lab jumped as the doors to the elevator opened up, rather dramatically Pepper thought. Two figures garbed in black stood inside the elevator, both with a look of amusement. The one figure she had recognized almost instantly, the red hair was a dead giveaway, even if it was much shorter than the last time Pepper had seen her. Natalie, or rather Natasha Romanoff, stood next to a tall black man with an eye patch. His presence was a very demanding one and Pepper had to be a little impressed that Natasha stood out so much against him. Based off of the eye patch, Pepper felt safe assuming that this man was Director Fury, seeing how Tony always called him nick names like "patchy" or "one eyed" when ranting about him.

"Now, Stark, what did I tell you about messing with SHEILD'S things?" Fury asked as he stepped out of the elevator.

Tony's eyes were still large, "How did you get in there?"

"We hacked you," Natasha answered with a smirk. "Don't worry, Jarvis is still technically intact, just off line. We instructed him to take a fifteen minute nap. He should be back in a couple of minutes."

"Why'd you do that? I just got off the phone and told bird-boy that I wouldn't do it again."

"Technically he talked to Pepper, not you."

"Besides, like we haven't heard that line before," Fury said as he took a few steps towards Stark who in turn stepped back. "You are way out of line."

"We were out of line," Tony asked. "Why were you keeping the information on that disease under strict lock and key?"

"It is suspicious," Bruce chimed in. "What was it? Biological warfare gone wrong? A message being sent to their government?"

"First of all, that's not the point," Fury said with a roll of his eye. "And second of all, since it was a secure file, I can't tell you anything about it unless you have the proper clearance."

Tony smiled wickedly, "Great, so give us the clearance and we will leave you alone."

"Hell no. That's not how it works."

"Then how does it work?"

"You have to earn that kind of title, Mr. Stark."

"And, what, saving Manhattan from a nuclear attack doesn't count as 'earning it'?"

Pepper watched as the men argued, not really sure what to do. Clearly the men were all upset with one another. The fact that Bruce hadn't turned into that green giant monster was impressive. Clearly he really did have it under control, even if the doctor didn't seem sure of it himself. Pepper was happy to see how relaxed Tony seemed in this argument. Sure, he was still Tony Stark, the man who always pressed for answers no matter what the cost was. But he was clearly a different person than the man who had been called to DC to defend his Iron Man suit a couple of months ago. He was a little more leaned back, and he just looked more comfortable. He must really like these people, even if he complains about them often.

Her eyes shifted over to Natasha, who still stood over by the elevator. She stood up straight but had her arms crossed in front of her. Pepper couldn't help but feel mixed emotions at the sight of her old assistant. After the debacle with Hammer Industries had been taken care of, Natasha approached Pepper and explained everything. It had been all business, with an explanation of who she was and what had happened and why things were the way things were. Of course Pepper wasn't too happy about it, but she really couldn't blame SHEILD for the extra security detail. Understandably, Tony hadn't been stable and he was a possible threat or ally for them. And as soon as things were showing signs of calming down, Natasha was released from Stark Industries, per request from SHEILD so that they could dispatch her half way across the world on another mission. Pepper thought she had heard something about Budapest, though she would never admit to that.

"Pepper?"

She was snapped back harshly from her thoughts as her eyes looked for the source of the sound, Tony. He looked at her, half in worry and half expectantly. "I'm sorry, what?"

Tony shook his head with a smile, "Never mind."

"Look, sir," said Bruce "With all due respect, we don't need a babysitter… Or at least I don't."

"Clearly you do, seeing how we had told you to not to hack into our database yet you still did" the director said with a harsh glare. "I'm leaving Agent Romanoff here to keep an eye on you two until further notice."

"But Pepper is here," Tony whined. "She can watch us! We don't need your hired help. I'm sorry, what's your name again?" he asked Natasha who responded with a roll of her eyes.

Pepper couldn't help buy yawn, it was late. Fury looked at her and smiled reluctantly, "With all due respect, Ms. Potts seems quite exhausted. Besides, I want someone here who can shoot you two yahoos if you keep get out of line again." With that, Fury turned, causing the tails of his coat to float around him intensely. He walked back into the elevator with a nod towards Natasha who returned the gesture.

"Wait, not only are you leaving her with us," Tony said, "But you are giving her permission to shoot us?"

"Yeah, Stark, I am. Besides, I'm sure Pepper can serve as a witness if needed," he looked at Natasha. "You know how to get ahold of me if you need to. Keep an eye on things for me."

"Will do sir."

"Good night Stark, Banner. Ms. Potts?"

Pepper looked up and made eye contact with the man, "Sir?"

"Welcome home." The elevator closed and a low hum signaling its movement was heard.

"Jarvis should be back online now," Natasha said as she folded her arms across her chest.

As if on cue, Jarvis chimed in hurriedly, "Sir, Agent Romanoff and Director Fury are trying to…"

"We know, Jarvis. Its okay."

Pepper looked at the clock across the room and made a decision quickly before someone could stop her, "Tony, I'm going to bed."

Tony smiled and kissed Pepper on the top of her head, "Okay. I'll come up as soon as I finish things down here. Shouldn't take too long."

Natasha moved to Pepper's side, "I'm gonna go upstairs with you if it's alright."

"Who said you could go upstairs?" Tony asked with a raise of the eye brow. "Do I know your name?"

"Agent Romanoff."

"So you say now…"

Natasha returned the quirk and replied, "If you let me go up to make sure that you can't go up there and get into SHIELD I can let you sleep in peace. Or would you rather I sat there and watched you while I sharpened my knives."

Tony shrugged, "Fair enough."

~::~

Pepper sat cross legged on her bed, glad to finally be out of the stiff business clothes. She had opted for loose fitting grey sweat pants that were frayed at the bottom from being stepped on one too many times and a creamed colored tank top. Her room had a fantastic view of NYC, one of the reason she suspected that Tony had declared the room hers. She sat there and ran her hands over the fabric of the comforter, allowing for her muscles to release all of the tension that had been in her body from the last week.

There was a knock at the door. "Come in," she called.

Natasha slipped into the room and quietly closed the door. Pepper was impressed; if she had been looking the other way she would have had no idea that the Black Widow had entered the room. Clearly this was a woman who was good at spying.

"Oh, Agent Romanoff," Pepper addressed the woman formally, not really sure how else to proceed. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"If you had a moment, I was hoping we could discuss how things transpired between us," Natasha said as she walked further into the room.

Pepper smiled and gestured to the empty space on the bed beside her, offering a seat, "Of course we can."

"You have to understand," Natasha said as she gracefully sat on the edge of the bed, one leg curled under her and the other off of the bed. A position Pepper guessed was good for making movement in any direction easier in case of emergency. She was impressed at how the bed hadn't moved a millimeter when she sat down. "I didn't mean to leave things the way I did. Things transpired quickly and I had to follow orders."

Pepper nodded, "I understand. I imagine you have to be pretty flexible if you work for SHEILD based off of what I've heard from Coulson."

Natasha tensed at the sound of the name and her eyes suddenly became distant, causing Pepper to wonder. "He would definitely agree that there is no certainty in our line of work," allowed Natasha.

"So how about we just start over," suggested Pepper, laughing at the cliché. "Call me Pepper. What should I call you?"

Natasha smiled, "Natasha. Agent Romanoff when needed."

Pepper smiled, "Fair enough."

"Well, I guess I should let you get to bed," Natasha said as she stood up. "Goodnight Pepper."

"Goodnight Natasha"

The door clicked closed behind Natasha and Pepper relaxed back into the pillows of her bed. She pulled the covers up and crawled in underneath, snuggling up in the warmth of home. She realized that the lamp light was still on across the room, but she was reluctant to get up. She sighed and started to roll out of bed when she heard a soft knock at the door, barely a whisper.

"Yes?"

The door opened slowly and Tony Stark stood in the door way. He had changed into shorts and a loose fitting t-shirt, a choice he had started to make ever since the whole Iron Man thing had become a big deal (waking up in your underwear one time to the alarm to jump into action was one time too many). He looked at the ground and shuffled his feet.

"Hey," he said with a smile.

"Hey yourself," returned Pepper. "Are you finally headed to bed?"

"Well, I was… but then it occurred to me that we need to talk. Sooner rather than later actually."

Pepper turned around and raised an eyebrow, "Okay, what's up?"

Tony walked in and kept his eyes away from her, a sure sign that whatever was bothering him was something big.

"People die."

Pepper couldn't help but roll her eyes, "Yes Tony, people die."

"But its not just the bad people, good people die too. People that shouldn't die, not for a while at least. People who shouldn't be going out of their way to try and protect us…"

Pepper could easily notice the dejected and broken look that the great billionaire seemed to have. The last time she had seen him like that was when he had first gotten back from Afghanistan. Clearly he was trying hard to open up, something that was against his natural tendencies.

"…people that should be practicing the cello or something right now but instead lies dead."

Pepper's eyes widened and she walked up to her boss. She put a hand on his chest where the arc reactor was underneath his shirt. She took a deep breath, "Tony, who died?"

He looked her dead in the eye, "Agent Coulson."

She could feel the tears welling up in her eyes despite her wishes, "When…"

"In the Battle of Manhattan. He took Loki on by himself. Didn't stand much of a chance really, but he did fight well." Tony pulled her close and wrapped his arms around her.

"Why didn't you tell me sooner?"

"I didn't know how," he whispered.

The tears flowed freely from Pepper's eyes. She couldn't help it. After everything that had happened in the last week, she hadn't even thought to worry about the rest of her friends that had been involved in the attack on Manhattan. And she was tired which didn't help the emotional part of things.

Tony pulled her in closer and just held her. "The memorial service is tomorrow. Will you come?"

Pepper nodded, "Of course."

Tony sighed, "Come on, time for bed."

Pepper nodded and let the great Tony Stark pull her towards her comfortable looking bed.

* * *

**Chapter 3 as done as can be… until chapter 4 because I know you want more. Leave me a review if you would be so kind, because reading them truly does help me unwind. So away I shall run, to my email I'll wait. Stay tuned for the chapter that comes at a later date.**

**Yeah, I'm not good with poetry. But you get the idea, REVIEW!**


	4. Chapter 4

**Yes, this chapter did get out faster than expected. See what I can accomplish when I have no one to text during the week (my boyfriend went on retreat so I suddenly had more free time). Also, working through the hard parts first and then piecing them together seem to be helpful for me. So here is this chapter. Its sad, but I don't think it'll make you cry per say. Also, thanks for the review guys!**

**Disclaimer: I don't know how to speak a lick of Russian, so if its wrong, blame google and not me. **

* * *

Pepper woke up rather suddenly to the sound of Jarvis' voice and the lights in the room coming on. "Good morning. Its 7am, the weather in New York is 70 degrees with clear skies, winds coming out of the northwest up to five miles per hour." Pepper rolled over and buried her face into her pillow. She needed more sleep that she had the chance to get. Or at least she had needed deeper sleep than she got. She could feel a headache tugging at the front of her head, a result she knew of crying right before she fell asleep. She begrudgingly looked up and her eyes were met with the brown eyes belonging to a certain . She smiled a little, happy to see his familiar face there next to her. She really was home, wasn't she?

"Morning," Tony said with a smile.

"Morning," Pepper returned. She stretched, "Can I go back to sleep?"

Tony sat up, "Are you kidding me? There are things to be done!"

"Such as?"

"Well, we are having guests over later," Tony started.

Pepper sat up, "We are? Since when?"

"Since always," Tony smirked, "I invited the team over to hang out after the service today."

"You could have told me that sooner." Pepper got out of bed and walked over to her closet. She looked at herself in the mirror and frowned. Her hair was sticking up everywhere and she had bags under her eyes from the lack of sleep in the past week. It was nothing a little makeup and styling couldn't fix though. She walked into the closet and looked at two rows of clothes on either side of her.

"The service is outside by the way," Tony yelled from the bedroom.

Pepper nodded and sighed, "Jarvis, I'm thinking black dresses today."

"An excellent choice," Jarvis chimed in. The clothes on either side whirled around on the conveyer belt like closet rod. Soon all of her black dresses were facing out with all of the other clothes hidden behind. Pepper walked down the line looking at her options before grabbing a tasteful tea-length dress with a short sleeve and a sweetheart neckline. She then walked to the end of the closet and picked out a pair of black heels that matched the dress perfectly. "Thank you Jarvis," she said as she walked out of the closet.

Tony looked at her clothing choice in her hand and raised an eyebrow, "You are going with THAT look?"

She playfully hit him, "If I remember correctly you were the one that insisted I bought this dress in the first place."

"Oh right," Tony laughed. "I've bought so many dresses recently that it must have slipped my mind."

"Sir," Jarvis chimed in, "Steve Rogers is requesting permission to enter the living quarters. Shall I let him in?"

"Yeah go ahead," Tony said to the AI. He kissed Pepper and then headed off towards the door, "I'm going to go see what the Star Spangled Monkey wants and let you get dressed. I'll see you downstairs."

~::~

Pepper came into the kitchen with her heels in her hand. The dress still fit well and it laid on her in such a way that it seemed to help her to appear a bit more graceful. She had pulled her hair up in a tasteful bun, figuring that that way it wouldn't get blown around by the wind since they were going to be outside.

She took a seat next to Bruce, who was wearing dark grey pants and a darker purple shirt on than the day before. He also had on a sports coat that matched the pants. He smiled at her as she sat down and he pushed her a bowl of freshly cut mixed fruit that was sitting on the table, "No strawberries".

She smiled back at the doctor, "Thank you."

"So remind me again why this is important," Tony said as he entered the kitchen followed by a tall blond man. Both men were already dressed for the service wearing suits that were black and white themed. "Your shield isn't in any danger or anything last time I checked. Think about it, who would want a really expensive Frisbee, beside you? No one uses that kind of thing anymore."

"Come on Tony," the man pleaded. "I just want to know what the chances are of getting another one _if_ something were to happen. I was told that there wasn't any more of the right material, but after being in ice for 70 years things change…"

"Look Steve, I can't make any promises. If that was the last of it, then it's the last of it."

"Maybe there's some newer thing that will accomplish the same goal? Just look into it for me?"

Tony closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose, "Fine, I'll have Jarvis run through things and see if he can dig anything up for you. Now will you stop pestering me?"

"Hello Steve," Bruce chimed in, trying to end the bickering. "Want any fruit?"

Steve seemed startled by the presence of other people in the room which he had not realized before, but he regained his composure rather quickly, "No thank you doctor, I ate on my way over."

"Fair enough," Bruce conceded. "This is Pepper Potts."

Pepper smiled and extended a hand, "It's nice to finally meet you."

Steve shook her hand, "Steve Rodgers. And likewise." He looked her over, but not in an intrusive way as most men did. He kept a straight face, "So rumor is that you are the only one Stark actually listens to around here."

Pepper laughed, "Well, I guess that depends on how you define him listening…"

Tony turned around with half a bagel in his hand, "Hey, I listen!"

Steve smirked, "Oh really? Based off of Agent Romanoff leaving while I was on my way in, I am under the impression that you did something SHEILD had told you not to…"

"Sir," Jarvis said "It is now 9:30am. If you don't wish to be late for the service I would advise that you prepare for departure."

"Sounds like a plan," Tony said as he scarfed down the last of his bagel. He tossed Banner a set of car keys from his pocket which the doctor caught and then stared at. He shook his head when his eyes came to rest on the Jaguar logo on them. Tony didn't notice, "You had said you wanted to drive yourself right?"

"Yeah," Banner said with a small laugh, "Only I didn't expect you to give me the keys to one of your expensive cars. Don't you have like an old Volvo or something?"

Tony grabbed Pepper's hand and started towards the elevator, "Remember what I said about tip-toeing?"

"Yeah but this seems more like…"

The elevator came and Tony and Pepper got in, "Strut, big guy. You can do it. Besides, its just a car." And with that the elevator doors closed.

"Why are we driving separately?" Pepper asked.

"Bruce and I both have an extra stop to make on the way and it'll be faster if we do them separately," Tony explained as the elevator descended to the garage floor.

~::~

Tony and Pepper walked into the service area. SHIELD had set aside part of a park to hold the service since apparently, it was a location Coulson would visit when he needed to clear his head. Pepper couldn't help but think that it looked quite beautiful with the trees rustling with the wind and the bright colors of the flowers that lined the walkways. In the area set aside for the service, there was an urn on a pedestal-like platform in front of a bunch of rows of folding chairs. Pepper recognized a bunch of faces standing off to the side of the chairs. Steve, Natasha, and Bruce stood with Thor, Clint and Maria Hill (all of which Pepper could only identify because she had seen their pictures either in a file of Tony's or on the news).

Tony sighed heavily and pushed his sun glasses up his face further. Pepper could tell that he was going to try and pull off his professional attitude while in front of other SHEILD agents, and she couldn't blame him really. Sometimes Tony just needed to be allowed to hide behind his mask.

The two of them walked over to the group. Pepper found it odd; no one said a word to anyone else. They all just stood there looking at one another. Clearly they were a team, Pepper thought. They were all just reading each other's body language. Or maybe guilt was weighing down on each of them as they thought of how they could have prevented the situation. It was difficult to tell.

"If everyone could take their seats…" a voice said over the speaker set up at the front. The majority of the people filled into the right side of the set of seats. They were all wearing the same dark uniform and walked with purpose, a small handful of them silently crying. Maria went over and sat in the front row of that section. "SHEILD's people," Tony whispered to Pepper, clarifying who they were.

The Avengers team all filed into the row of seats. Pepper couldn't help but realize how silly it looked. Thor and Steve both looked like normal adults in children seats just because of their massive size. Pepper ended up sitting at the end of the row, with Tony on her left.

Director Fury stood at the front of the crowd next to the urn on the pedestal and waited for everyone to quiet down before he spoke. "Today we gather here to remember a fallen comrade. Phil Coulson was more than just any agent. Phil was the hardest worker SHEILD has ever known, often volunteering to relocate or to take on an assignment before the request could be made of him. He always jumped into action without hesitation, with the hopes of keeping the world safe for everyone even if at his own expense.

"Phil never married, was an only child, and his parents died when he was a young man. That is why he truly saw his fellow agents as his family. Phil showed us all how to be a good man. He would save the day even when things looked bleak. He knew how to love his work, but he was always fun to be around. He was a great friend to all that needed his help. Even when it was against orders, he believed in the good in all people. He gave the most second chances of anyone I know. He was also the most patient person on the face of the planet. But I am sure that I don't need to tell all of you any of that because you know it all first hand.

I have worked alongside this man for as long as I can remember, and he has always had this obsession with heroes. I've heard stories of him dreaming of the super heroes from before he could walk. And I can honestly say that no one deserves the title of super hero more than Phil. He saved numerous people throughout his life in small ways and in big. He died doing the right thing, and he believed that his death was for the greater good. There is no death nobler than his. Phil Coulson is a hero; it is a simple as that. We would do well to remember him as such."

The Director turned and placed an open box on the platform that held the urn. Inside of it was a medal, with the inscription of "SHEILD Medal of Honor" engraved into it. He walked away and everyone sat still for a moment.

A woman in a plaid shirt and jeans went up next, her eyes darting back and forth, a clear sign that she was not comfortable with her surroundings. She placed a pack of powdered sugar doughnuts on the pedestal. She whipped her eye with the back of her sleeve before she hurried away.

Next, Maria stood up and the rest of the SHEILD personnel did so as well by their seats, including Natasha and Clint. She was the only one to move though. She marched over to the pedestal and placed a picture of all of the SHEILD recruits on it at some camp in a desert. The picture frame was engraved at the top with "thank you from all of us" on it. She then returned to her seat and sat down, followed by the rest of the group.

Steve Rogers was the first of the Avengers to move. He walked forward to the urn on its pedestal. His face was hard as stone as he placed a collectable Captain America vintage trading card down next to the urn. On it in his hand writing, Steve had written, "Sorry this is late. –Captain America".

Next in line was Bruce, with a solemn smile on his face. He gingerly placed down a single, white carnation next to the trading card. He shook his head and whispered, "you will be missed" before walking on. Thor came up after that and placed a post card from New Mexico down. He struck his chest and bowed in respect before going back to his seat without a word.

Clint came up next, his eyes red although he marched up with his head held high. He placed a twenty dollar bill down on the platform, "I guess you did win that bet" he said. Natasha came up behind him and shook her head. She placed a sealed envelope down on top of Clint's money, "Спасибо за шанс ... и пинок под зад, когда я в ней нуждался," she said.

Tony stepped up next, keeping ahold of Pepper's hand and guiding her along behind him. He stopped and looked at the items placed down by everyone that had already been up to say goodbye. He smirked a little and reached into his inside coat pocket to get the item he and Pepper had stopped for on the way. He pulled out a small bottle of Bourbon and placed it on the ground, next to the platform, "You finally aren't on duty…" Pepper placed a hand on the urn, and felt herself start to choke up a bit. "Thank you Phil. For always being there for them." Pepper then turned away and allowed for Tony to lead her off to the side where the other Avengers had assembled.

* * *

**Russian translation: "Thanks for the chance… and the kick in the butt when I needed it"**

**Write me a review please. I think I'll be able to crank out another chapter later this week, but if I am not happy with the reviews I will hold back the chapter for a bit longer. Thanks for being a great group of readers. I love each and every one of you! **

**To whomever it was that asked me to include the donuts, super nanny and a Taser: I got the donuts done. But the other two items I'll include in the next chapter. They just didn't work here. Thanks for understanding and know that I am trying to make it happen :D **


	5. Chapter 5

**Originally I wasn't going to post this until middle of the day, but since I had another fire alarm and was wide awake yet again against my will, I am going to post this now.  
Sorry guys this is later than I was planning. Life happens, as we are aware. As a college student I have a bunch going on right now. So if inconsistent posting bothers you… well, I hope you cut me some slack. ANYWHO here's chapter 5. It's a bit lighter in nature compared to the previous chapter. But don't go getting used to that or anything. Alright ill stop rambling and let you read on:**

* * *

The Avengers and Pepper all stood there to the side of the service, watching as the few people left paid their respects. A few people from various backgrounds and clearly from different places came up to pay their respects. Pepper guessed that they must have been different people from Coulson's past. Somewhere nearby, there was a cello softly playing a Bach's Cello piece number one. The song was so full of passion and emotion the fact that it was for the fallen hero could not be mistaken.

"Should we get going?" Tony asked as he shifted his weight from one foot to the other. "I'm starting to feel like I'm intruding or something…"

Clint slid on a pair of sunglasses and looked over his shoulder, "Yeah, we should go."

Tony cleared his throat and smiled. He turned towards Bruce and Steve, "I'll race you guys back to the tower."

Thor frowned, "Am I not invited to join in this childish game of speed?"

Tony laughed, "Yeah, let's let the god who can get places with his magical flying powers from his hammer race against some mortals. That seems perfectly fair."

"If Thor wants to join," Pepper cut in, "How about we let him? Let's just set the rule that you have to travel by human means?"

Natasha cut in, "If you are placing those rules, I want…"

"No, no, no" interjected Tony. "You and Princess Madeira over there are not invited. I'm pretty sure your 'human means' are borderline on the human side of that."

Clint snickered, "Afraid to lose Tony?"

"I won't lose so it's not even an issue."

Pepper smiled at Tony, "Then you have nothing to lose. Just let them go. It'll be fun."

"Fine," Tony said begrudgingly.

"So when do we start?" Rogers inquired.

Pepper stifled a laugh as all of the Avengers stared at each other warily, sizing one another up or something. No one said a word as they all eyed each other over. None of them dared move for fear of showing any sign of weakness.

Then, in a flash, all of the super heroes exploded off running in different directions without a word. Pepper stood in shock until Tony grabbed her hand and started pulling her behind him, "Come on Pep."

Pepper shook her head and tried to keep up with her boyfriend. She struggled and kept tripping over the three inch heels she had decided to wear that day. Tony kept pulling her along, allowing her barely enough time to get her footing again. "Tony wait," she implored. She pulled her hand free and stopped to take off her shoes.

Stark laughed, "Come on, we're going to lose."

"Wouldn't you agree that me breaking my neck would take even more time," Pepper asked as she hopped out of her shoes and grabbed them off the side walk. She started running again with Tony just a little ahead of her.

They ran up to the car and Pepper couldn't help but gasp. Four arrows had been expertly shot at the tires of the car, causing them all to deflate. There was no mistaking it; Clint Barton was a skilled archer.

"Damn," Tony cursed.

"Since when did we say sabotage was allowed," Pepper asked as she looked closer at the deflated tires.

Tony ran a hand over his hair, "As soon as it became a race against the Avengers."

"Well, what do we do now?"

Tony closed his eyes to think for a moment. Then a wicked grin spread across his face. "Pepper, open the trunk."

"Uh, alright" Pepper said. She took the keys she had placed in her purse out and clicked the button. The trunk to the car popped open and Pepper couldn't help but smile when she saw what was inside; the Mark V Iron Man armor all folded up neatly in its briefcase form.

Tony pulled it out and activated it by stepping on it. It folded itself neatly around him as it was designed to do. Pepper would never admit it, but the way the Iron Man suits worked themselves was simply put as pretty. The fluid motion of all of the mechanics were expertly crafted, not that she would have expected anything less to come from its creator.

The mask lit up, signaling that the suit was operational, "I'm glad I brought this," Tony said through the suit.

"Yeah, why do you have it with you today? Were you expecting problems?" Pepper asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Uh, Pep, we are in a bit of a hurry," Iron Man said as he took a few steps towards her. "Mind if we get going?"

Pepper looked him over and realized what he was thinking: he was going to carry her while flying, "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

"Well we don't have much of a choice," Iron Man said. "Trust me, I got you." He wrapped his arm around her waist as she held her hand around his neck. Without so much as another word, the suit took off, carrying her through the air with him.

Pepper pressed herself close to the metallic suit. She silently thanked God that the tower wasn't too far away; this was not the ideal way to travel. Maybe if the situation came up that this was a way to travel multiple times, she would get used to it. But until then, she didn't like the feeling of nothing underneath her feet. If it had been anyone beside Iron Man carrying her through the maze of buildings in NYC, she was sure she would have freaked out.

The two of them banked through the buildings up high above the hustle and bustle of city life below. Within a minute, Stark Tower was in sight. Even from their elevated position a few blocks out, Pepper could see two figures entangled in hand to hand battle on the landing platform.

"Looks like our two resident spies are stuck," commented Iron Man. "Do you think we can sneak our way in past them?"

Pepper shook her head as she watched the two assassins dance with one another. They were awfully close to causing some serious harm to their partner, but neither seemed to land a punch. "There's no way they let us past them."

Iron Man landed on the platform and set Pepper down gently. The gears whirled as the suit disassembled itself allowing Tony Stark to walk out of it freely. The two assassins stopped and looked at the two new comers to the deck.

Tony glared at them, "You owe me four new tires Barton."

Natasha swung a leg out and knocked Clint's feet out from under him. The archer landed with a grunt. Natasha stood over top of him, "Don't let your guard down Clint."

Clint spun and knocked Natasha to the floor as well. He rolled himself on top of her and pinned her down, "Don't worry, I didn't."

Tony wasted no time as he made a dash over top of the two spies while grabbing Pepper's hand and pulling her along with him. Clint lunged at Tony's feet forcing him to the ground.

"Go Pepper," Tony yelled as he tried to push Clint off of him. Pepper didn't ask questions and did as she was asked. She ran into the tower and was shocked at what she found.

Bruce Banner and Thor sat on the sofa sipping tea from coffee mugs, both looking comfortable. "What happened?" Pepper asked.

Bruce smiled and pushed his glasses up his nose, "Thor and I got back first."

"No one stopped you?"

Banner said, "Well, Natasha did cut through a tire with one of her knives, but we were able to put the spare on without much trouble."

The elevator dinged and the doors opened to Steve looking miffed. "Did they get your tires?" Bruce asked.

Steve crossed his arms over his chest, "Yeah. Both of them actually."

Tony, Clint and Natasha all came tumbling into the room in a tangle of limbs, all three of them yelling over top of one another. Pepper couldn't tell what the problem was exactly, but it was interesting to see Tony sort of stuck in a position from which he could not win.

"HEY," Steve yelled. All three Avengers stopped and looked at the Captain. "I think that's enough guys."

The three untangled themselves from one another and stared at the other Avengers. "How did you get here so fast?" Tony asked.

"I didn't," Steve said as he walked over to the couch and took a seat, "I had to walk my way back while pushing my bike. Someone deflated the tires," he said looking at Natasha. Natasha shrugged him off.

"Question: how did Thor and Banner get back first?"

Barton and Romanoff exchanged a look, "Well the goal wasn't to set off the Hulk, so we had to choose our battles wisely."

"They took out one of the tires. But with Thor's help it didn't take long to get the spare on and get going," Banner explained.

Thor looked at Pepper, "How did the two of you get back, we had heard whispers that all four of your tires had been eliminated?"

Pepper shrugged, "Tony had a suit in the trunk."

Steve looked at Tony, "Were you expecting trouble today?"

Tony waved his hand, "Nah, just thought better to have it and not need it than wishing I had it."

Clint raised his hand, "Question: does the Iron Man suit count as 'human means' of transportation?"

"It was created by a human, was it not," Thor asked.

"Right, last time I checked, I was a human," Tony responded. "Besides, it's the Iron MAN. Man is human isn't it? I mean even the word 'human' has the word 'man' in it."

Pepper looked at the clock; it was about time for dinner. She walked over to Tony and whispered, "Did you have a plan for dinner?"

Mr. Stark shrugged, "I didn't really figure that out. I guess we could do whatever."

"I'll order pizza then," Pepper declared. "Who wants what?"

All of the Avengers shared their thoughts at the same time, causing Pepper's head to swim. Steve stood up, "How about I'll write all of the orders and then I'll call."

Tony shook his head, "You are still getting used to how to use Jarvis as a phone. Pepper can call."

"I don't think we should be forcing her to do anything Tony," Steve chided. "She isn't your assistant…"

Pepper smiled, "Actually, I am. Or at least I have been for most of my life it seems. I'll be happy to help you Steve."

~::~

Pepper sat in the kitchen area and waited for Steve to finish figuring out the game plan. All of the Avengers wanted something different and it was next to impossible to see an easy solution as far as Pepper was concerned. Steve seemed set in figuring out the best way to get enough pizza of the kinds people wanted without ordering way too much.

"All right," Steve said after a minute, "Looks like we need one large veggie for the girls, one banana peppers and bacon for Clint, two cheese pizzas for Banner and me, and then 5 all meat pizzas for Thor and Tony since they both are claiming to be starving. I figure Thor can eat just about anything that is left over from everyone else as well."

Pepper nodded, "Sounds like a plan to me. I'll call it in. Jarvis, can you get me Stan Lee's Pizza?"

"Dialing now," Jarvis answered. The phone system was wired so that one could just talk to the room (much like how one could talk to Jarvis) and it would go through the phone. Only the kitchen was wired this way to help aid in hands free calling while cooking.

"Hello, thank you for calling Stan Lee's Pizza. How can we serve you?"

Pepper smiled, "Hey Mary, its Pepper Potts."

"Yes Miss Potts, how may we help you today?"

Pepper relayed the order by reading off of the paper that Steve had slid over to her. "And if you could get it here supper fast it would be appreciated."

"Of course. We will have that over to Stark Tower in fifteen minutes. Thank you and call again." The phone clicked off and Jarvis chimed, "Call ended".

Pepper looked at Steve who was busy staring off into the air, "You could have made that call."

"No, Tony was right. I really shouldn't have been the one making the call on that kind of system yet," Steve said.

"Are you making the transition well," Pepper asked.

Steve smiled, "Depends on who you ask. The professionals are saying that I'm adapting really well considering everything."

"You feel otherwise?"

"Not really, I just wish it was easier to get used to things."

Pepper couldn't help but think about hearing stories of her grandfather who had fought in the First World War. She remembered hearing about how he struggled to get used to life again after the war. Sure it had been a number of years before Steve fought his battles, but some things never change. It must have been hard for Steve to get used to those changes in ways of life, not to mention the fact that he had come back from the war in a different time.

Steve smiled coming back from whatever his own thoughts had been, "I'm sure in time I'll get the hang of it."

"Well, if you ever need any help with anything, just let me know," Pepper offered. "I am sure we are happy to help."

Jarvis chimed in, "Miss Potts, the delivery boy is approaching."

"I guess I better go get the pizza then."

Steve stood up straight, "I'll come help."

"That's nice of you," Pepper said with a smile.

"Well it's the least I can do for you," Steve answered. "Besides, you haven't even been in town even for twenty four hours."

Pepper laughed, "Wow, I hadn't realized that. It feels like I've been back for a while."

"Well it's nice to have you back," Steve said as the two of them headed over towards the elevator. "I have to admit, Tony seems to have a different attitude when you are around."

"I could say the same about the Avengers," Pepper responded.

"Well welcome home," Steve said. "It's nice to have someone around who can keep a hand on Tony."

The elevator opened up to allow for them to enter. "Well, I can try, but I make no promises. I have known him too long for that."

* * *

**Well there's that. Don't worry, it wont be sunshine and roses this entire thing. So let's keep going shall we? First thing is first, in honor of st. patty's day, I attempted writing a limerick for you (you know already I'm not good with this kind of thing). **

**A review from you today  
****Would lead to me shouting hooray  
****I'd like a review  
****And to hear from you  
****So then I could go out and play.****  
**


	6. Chapter 6

**Its warm out, so what do I do? That's right, I stay inside and work on a chapter. I'm on break since I'm trying to get this done before Iron Man 3 (I'm seriously excited for that, by the way), I figured it was worth posting right now. Thanks for all of the follows, favorites, and reviews. They mean a ton to me! Glad to see you guys are with me. :D  
Disclaimer: I don't own the Avengers (which I said in the past), but I also don't own Nintendo or Harmonix.**

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Pepper stood in the elevator next to Steve Rogers as they descended through Stark Tower. She fished out the money for the nine pizzas that they had ordered. Inwardly she had cursed herself for not having just ordered ten pizzas so they could get the bulk discount, but that was a lesson to make a note of for another time. Besides, she knew that Tony would eat the pizza cold if he was ever up late on a project and stopped long enough to realize he was hungry.

The elevator opened up on the ground floor and standing in the middle of the lobby stood a teenage boy shifting his weight uncomfortably from one foot to another. Next to him was a small tower of pizza boxes all stacked on top of one another. Pepper and Steve stepped out of the elevator and approached the boy. The delivery boy's eyes grew wider as his eyes fell upon his customers, or more correctly, when he realized he was looking at the great Captain America in normal, everyday clothing.

Pepper smiled at the shocked boy, "I believe this is for you." She said as she extended her hand offering him the money. She remembered how she used to get star struck like that when she had first started working for Stark Industries, but she had grown used to it. After you meet the President of the United States, you got used to remembering that VIPs were normal people deep down.

"I.." The boy was snapped from his trance still a little dazed, "Oh right." He took the money from Pepper but didn't take his eyes off of Rogers.

Steve leaned over and picked up the stack of pizzas with one hand effortlessly. Pepper couldn't help but be amused with how he had done it without thinking. It wasn't that he was trying to show off or anything, he was simply doing what he saw to be natural and the most helpful. The pizza boy's jaw dropped in amazement. Pepper realized it had probably taken the poor boy two trips to get them all in that far, but Steve unintentionally showed him up by doing it all in one trip with one hand.

"Thanks," Steve said with a smile and then turned back towards the elevator.

"That…That's Captain America, isn't it?" the boy finally stammered out.

Pepper smiled, "Yes it is. Thank you for the delivery. You can keep the change."

The boy smiled sheepishly, "Thanks." He started to walk out of the building and muttered to himself, "Captain America eats pizza… who knew?"

Pepper stepped into the elevator and noticed that Steve was laughing from behind the boxes. She looked at him quizzically, not quite sure what he was amused with. Steve answered the unasked question, "Pizza was invented in the 1800s. The first pizza place in North America was in, like, 1905 I think. I know I'm old, but I'm not THAT old."

The elevator came to the floor where they had left the team in no time at all. Pepper pressed one button, which allowed for the doors to open (the living quarters weren't as high on the security list as the labs). Pepper and Steve stepped out and started to take the pizza's over to the bar. Pepper stuck her head into the living room, "Pizza is here, guys." This caused the rest of the Avengers to start migrating towards the kitchen area.

"I'm just saying maybe it was a sign that the "A" was the only letter to survive the attack," Tony explained, continuing the conversation from the other room. "No pun intended there."

"I still don't know why we should say that this is our HQ in the first place. No one ever said that this Avengers gig was going to be a normal thing." Natasha pointed out.

Clint chimed in, "My question is who decided that "the Avengers" was a good name for who we are. I know that Fury set that name with the initiative, but it still seems weird."

Thor said, "I think it is a fitting name."

"Oddly enough, I agree." Banner nodded.

Pepper chimed in, "Where did Fury even get the name?"

"I'm not sure it was his idea," Steve said as he handed out the pizzas to their owners.

Pepper accepted the veggie pizza and walked over to Natasha. The two women dived into the veggie pizza, happy to have food. Pepper and Natasha shared a smile, both content to have the companionship of another woman in the building currently being dominated by men.

The group of heroes all stood there in the kitchen, eating directly out of the pizza boxes since no one seemed interested in waiting the passing of plates, or more accurately, no one wanted to clean the dirty dishes when they were done.

Pepper took the opportunity of dinner to just observe this ragtag team. The way that they all interacted spoke tons to their own individual histories. Pepper would be the first to admit that she didn't know many of their stories, and if they were anything like Tony's she was most likely happier not knowing. But it was surprising how they all seemed genuinely content with one another. The smiles in the room, despite the fact that they had just gotten back from the memorial service of a fallen comrade, was amazing to Pepper. She was grateful that Tony had these people with him. He wouldn't be taken Coulson's death as well as he seemed if he hadn't had his friends.

"Hey, Pepper," Tony called, gaining her attention from her thoughts. "Thor here is going to stay with us here in the tower. Do you think…"

Pepper nodded and smiled, having already anticipated the question. "Of course. I think the second guest bedroom is already ready."

"How?"

Pepper shrugged, "I always have Jarvis help me keep one extra room ready. To what do we owe the prolonged visit?"

Thor smiled with a distant look in his eye, "I was hoping to help clean up the destruction our battle caused..."

"He also has a girl that he would like to see," Clint chimed in with his mouth still full of pizza. "Don't let him fool you."

Pepper turned to Thor, "Do you want me to show you your room now?"

Thor straightened up, "That sounds most excellent. I would like to borrow your telephone to call Jane if you don't mind."

"Great," Pepper said. "There's a phone in your room and you won't have to worry about other people listening in."

Tony waved a hand, "Go ahead. I'm sure your girl would appreciate it. You could invite her here if you want. I don't care. Do what makes sense."

~::~

Pepper opened the door to one of the guest suites in the tower, showing Thor inside. He looked around the room with an obvious keen interest in his new surroundings. He walked over to the massive window and looked out into the city with a sigh.

"The phone is on the counter over there if you would like it," Pepper said. "If you need anything, please feel free to either let me or Jarvis know."

Thor didn't respond, lost in his own thoughts it seemed. Concern was clearly visible on his face, enough that Pepper could tell even though she didn't know the man very well. It either had to do with his brother Loki, or this girl that he apparently liked.

"I'm sure that she understands," Pepper said, trying to break the silence with reassurance. She knew she could just leave the room, but at the same time, her intuition told her that waiting to see if he needed anything was a good idea.

"I hope she does," Thor finally said.

Pepper picked up the phone and handed it to the god, "Only one way to find out, I'm afraid. Just talk to her."

Thor accepted the phone and looked at it for a moment. He weighed it in his hand before he spoke, "She'll understand?"

"Of course she will," Pepper said reassuringly. "You can do this."

Thor finally smiled, "Thank you. You are a gracious hostess."

Pepper smiled at the small flattery, "Thank you Thor." She nodded towards the phone in his hand, "I'll leave you to it then. Again, if you need anything, don't hesitate to ask."

"Thank you. And welcome home Ms. Potts," Thor said.

Pepper turned and led herself out of the room, "Thanks. I'll see you later Thor."

~::~

Pepper returned to find the group had moved into the living room area. Everyone surrounded the entertainment system, lounging on couches or even just walking the room. Steve was wandering around the room looking at the massive screen, clearly impressed with it.

"So how is the controller Banner has talking to the game system?" Steve asked.

"It uses accelerator and an optical motion sensor," Banner started to explain.

Steve cut him off, "and those are?"

Clint laughed from his end of the couch he and Natasha were sitting on, "Magic."

Tony looked at Pepper and gestured to the empty space next to him. She maneuvered her way over, being sure to stay out of the way of everyone. She sat down next to her boyfriend and he moved in closer to her. Pepper shifted, she was still getting used to being allowed to be even a tiny bit "couple-y" with the great Tony Stark, especially when with other people. "What'd I miss?" Pepper asked Tony.

"We decided to play video games. Steve was interested in learning how the Wii controller works. You have no idea how amazing Banner is at this game. He's a pro or something."

Banner turned around so he was no longer facing the screen while still playing a song that was clearly on expert, "Did Thor know how the phone works?"

"Uh," Pepper said, clearly shocked at the scientist's skills in the game, "I asked if he needed help and he didn't say anything, so I assume he did."

"This isn't his first time on Earth," Clint pointed out. "He's probably used phones before."

"Modern phones aren't that bad if you don't question it," Steve chimed in from across the room as he inspected a Wii controller that wasn't in use and wasn't in a guitar controller. "Jarvis being the exception."

Banner turned back around as the song ended "So who's next?"

Tony laughed, "How did you get so good at this game? I mean, you weren't even paying attention but got a perfect score! You, my friend, have mad skills."

Bruce lifted the guitar controller over his shoulder and pushed his glasses up, "I memorized the pattern a long time ago. No skill involved."

"You're turn Cap," Natasha called.

"Oh, no," Steve said. "I don't think I should."

"Of course you should," Pepper chimed in. "Just give it a try. It won't kill you if you fail a video game."

Thor walked in, "I agree. You should try."

"Have you played before?" Steve asked.

"I have not," Thor admitted.

"I'll make you a deal then," Steve said as he walked over to take the controller from Banner. "I'll play a song if you play one after me."

Thor grinned at the challenge, "I accept. You first."

Steve placed the shoulder strap on and listened as Banner figured out what song was the best for him to play.

"So," Tony said, "How was the girl?"

"Jane," Thor said, "She is well. She asked me to let you all know that she appreciates what you did in the battle with my brother."

"Should we expect her to come and stop by sometime while you are here?" Pepper asked.

"She said that her work is keeping her out west, but she appreciated the offer of a place to stay," Thor explained. "I expect I shall go see her myself at some point during my stay."

"Do what makes sense," Tony said.

Steve was doing well getting through the song considering he was new to the concept. He did as well as any other person would be their first time: not horrible, although not good. No one in the room said anything for fear of breaking his concentration.

Suddenly, a loud siren went off causing all of the Avengers to jump to their feet. Steve put his hands up, letting go of the game controller, "Wasn't me!"

"Sir," Jarvis chimed in over top of the siren, "It appears my systems are under a cyber-attack. Incoming video call on screen now." The video game cut out and the silhouette of a man appeared on screen. Tony moved instinctively to block Pepper, who was still on the couch, from the view of the screen. Pepper tried to move but Tony pushed her back.

"Doctor Banner, Mr. Stark," the voice of the figure on screen came on, obviously distorted. "I believe you have something I want."

* * *

**There's your favorite thing ever: CLIFF HANGER (… and that's why he's called cliff hanger). (If you didn't get that, then just ignore it). Oh, in case you are wondering, since I know some people were, there aren't going to be that many more chapters after this.**

**I looked up some of the information (such as the history of pizza and how Wii controllers work ) from Google. I apologize if the information is incorrect. Please don't come after me with pitch forks... although kindly telling me in a review would be nice. I'd like to know the truth and I'd be happy to change it in the story.**

**Anyway, lemme know what you thought in a review. How did I do with Thor? Did you enjoy Steve's fun? What about Bruce and video games? OR what do you think about the cliff hanger?**

** Thanks for reading and thanks for the reviews! **


	7. Chapter 7

**Please write a review.**

**So ya'll know how I said that there would only be one chapter left? I lied. Turns out that in order for that to happen it would have been an insanely long chapter. Therefore I decided to post this chapter before the last chapter. You are welcome. The goal is still to finish this before Iron Man 3. So stay tuned. Send me a review with your thoughts please. Please oh please do that for me!**

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No one in the tower moved an inch, including Pepper. To say that they were caught off guard would have been an understatement. The feeling of enjoyment that had been in the room moments before were now replaced with one of calculation. Even breathing seemed to be controlled as if it could give them the upper hand. Tony kept his hand on Pepper, the prolonged touch clearly telling her to stay put.

"I'm sorry," Steve spoke, having been the first to regain his composure, "But who are you?"

"Who I am is not important…" the being on the screen said.

Clint let out a laugh, and muttered, "That's the stupidest line ever given…"

Banner took off his glasses and folded them calmly in his hand, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what you are claiming we took from you."

"Oh, you didn't take it from me," the man said. "Rather, you took it from SHIELD. I want it."

"What makes you think we took it?" Tony said as he crossed his arms in front of him. Pepper could tell that he felt safe in assuming Pepper had gotten the message not to move.

The man's voice clearly grew more agitated even through the voice distortion software "Don't play dumb with me. I know you took it. I traced the transfer. I was paying attention even when SHIELD wasn't!"

Tony sounded annoyed, "Well, it isn't like we are just going to hand it over to you."

"That's not my goal. I want to obliterate all knowledge on the subject of Virus Ki."

"Oh, well I already deleted that. So there is no need…" Tony started.

"You forget I hacked your system. Your system shows that you printed it out before you deleted it."

Pepper could assume that based off of Tony's silence he hadn't known about the printing.

Banner's eyes grew wide. Pepper couldn't tell if it was real or if she imagined it, but she saw the slightest tinge of green pass through his eyes. He closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose before speaking, "Please tell me you aren't…"

"Tell you that I'm not sending an army to ensure that the print out you sent to your doctor friends downtown is annihilated as well as anyone who has read the document?" the man asked. "Now, Doctor Banner, I know I might appear like a bad guy to you. That being said, I'd like to attest to my own humanity. I am not so cruel as to lie to people about things that matter."

Tony chimed in again, "Not to be rude, but why are we talking? Are you going to give us an ultimatum or do you want us to stop you or something?"

The man laughed harshly, causing an involuntary cringe in Pepper, "No, I just needed to distract you long enough for my computers to finalize destroying the information on Virus Ki and to find that address from Doctor Banner's contacts where he sent the file. Thank you for your time." With that, the screen went blank.

"Transmission ended," Jarvis chimed in.

All eyes fell on Bruce who was clearly paler than usual. Pepper leaned around Tony, "Bruce, you really should sit down. Tony could you get him…"

"No," Tony said coldly as he stared into nothing, clearly thinking. "We don't have time. Bruce, keep it under control for five minutes. Everyone else, suit up and be back here in two."

"I know… I was only trying to help…" Banner closed his eyes and started to pace.

"It's alright," Tony said as he started to leave for the lab, "There was no way to predict this."

Pepper stood statue still, not sure of what to do. Her natural instinct was to help the man clearly in at least mental distress if nothing else. However she knew that she was not skilled with the knowledge of how to help without risk of causing a large amount of harm. She watched him nervously pacing for a moment before an idea hit her. Pepper walked over to the doors that lead to the balcony of the tower and opened both doors wide, happy that it wasn't raining or anything. The fresh air came in catching Banner's attention. He looked at Pepper who smiled kindly, "You seemed like you could use some fresh air. Maybe you could wait outside? I'll send the team out to you."

Banner didn't say a word but flashed a quick smile as he hurried past Pepper. Pepper watched him, wishing she could do more. She reached into her back pocket and grabbed her cellphone and Bluetooth out, syncing them without looking. She placed the earpiece over her ear and slid the phone back in her pocket as she turned around to greet the Avengers in all of their full gear.

The Iron Man's faceplate was off, allowing Pepper to look at Tony's face. She approached him and stopped to look him over. As expected, everything seemed in place. The suit was perfect; she always had to remember that. Pepper could practically see the spinning gears in his head as he already started calculating things unknown to others.

"We'll be back," Tony said.

"I know that," Pepper responded. "Anything I can do to help?"

Tony kissed the top of her head, "Stay here. Stay safe."

"Watch Super Nanny," Clint joked, "Coulson always did. He said it helped him figure out how to deal with us." He stopped talking when Natasha roller her eyes and shifted, clearly picking up on something unspoken.

"Alright team, let's head out. Where's Banner?" Tony asked as he walked out the door without waiting for an answer to his question. Thor followed closely behind him, his red cape billowing out behind him.

"Who made you team leader?" Clint asked Tony as he followed, Natasha close by.

"Shouldn't we call SHIELD?" Steve asked as he swung his shield over his shoulder.

"I'll notify SHIELD," responded Pepper. "You guys really need to get going."

Steve nodded, "Thanks Pepper."

Pepper watched as the Avengers had a quick discussion on the balcony before taking off. Tony flipped down the face of the Iron Man mask and picked up Steve before flying off. Clint pulled out an arrow and shot it towards a neighboring building below. A chord was left in his hand connected to the end of the arrow. Natasha wrapped an arm around his waist and the two leapt off of the balcony as if they had done it a million times before. Thor swung his hammer around in a circle, and storm clouds seemed to gather out of nowhere. Pepper wouldn't swear to it, but Thor then seemed to soar into the air following his hammer (although, this would explain why Tony referred to the hammer as Thor's "magic-unpronounceable-alien-god-thingy" when muttering under his breath).

Pepper then watched as the timid Bruce Banner finally let go of the control he was trying to keep over himself. His body fell into tremors as the Hulk finally took over. He grew to about three times its original size. It truly was spectacular and it happened faster than Pepper had expected, although that may have been due to the extreme stress they were under at the moment. It was hard to tell. The newly transformed Hulk turned around, looking at his surroundings. His eyes fell on Pepper, causing her to involuntarily freeze up. His eyes were harsher, but they softened in a sort of recognition. They stood there staring at each other for a moment. Then the Hulk turned as if he heard something, let out a loud roar, and then jumped off of the balcony.

Clearly, the Avengers were a strange group, Pepper thought. But if you put together that many strange people together, then apparently it created something somewhat seemingly normal…

Pepper snapped out of it and walked back into the living room. "Jarvis," she called to the AI. "Put me directly through to Nick Fury. On screen if you would be so kind. Also, I'd like for the Iron Man observation system to be put up for me as well."

The television screen flashed on with Jarvis' interface. Tony had worked to design this system to help ease Pepper's mind by allowing her to monitor him in battle from a safe distance. His vital signs were all visible as well as all of the suit's readings that were online. A video of Tony's face was also visible in the corner and below that was a video of the visual feed that the suit was feeding to Tony from his surroundings. A large screen took over the center of the television with the SHIELD logo on it.

Maria Hill showed up on the screen, arms crossed and not even looking at her screen, "Stark, I have told you before, you can't just call up the Director any time on one of your whimsical fantasy…"

"Sorry to bother you," Pepper cut in with a professional smile. She took a deep breath to try and steady herself for the conversation.

"Miss Potts," Maria said somewhat startled, "To what do I owe the honor?"

"I was hoping of talking to the Director…"

"He will be with you in a moment," Hill said. "He was stuck in a conference with The Council. Perhaps I can help you until he becomes available."

"I was interested in learning more about Virus Ki," Pepper asked as her eyes scanned over Tony's readouts.

"Stark and Banner would be able to tell you more than I could," Fury said as he came on screen.

Pepper focused again on the director, "I need other information than what they have."

Fury's eye narrowed in suspicion, "Why do you want to know?"

"Because it turns out that someone else besides SHIELD isn't happy that they got the information…"

"Who? What exactly happened?"

"A man hacked Jarvis and got onto the television screen," Pepper explained. "We didn't see him and he didn't give a name. All he said was that he wanted to get rid of all of the information about Virus Ki. Apparently he realized that Tony had deleted it from Jarvis' memory, but Banner printed it out and sent it to a friend for another opinion."

"So now he is going after the people Banner sent the info to," Hill said with a cold stone face.

"He claimed he was sending an army, sir," Pepper added as she noticed the oncoming battalion of what appeared to be a mix of robotic mutant creatures appear on the Iron Man's view screen. "Director… I don't… what's going on?"

Fury started hitting buttons on the display in front of them. "Doctor Kifist finally snapped and is causing hell. That's what's happening. I take it the Avengers…"

"…are already on the scene and are trying to deal with the situation," Pepper finished. "Yes they are."

Hill sighed and muttered under her breath, "We just had a battle in New York…"

"Is there anything I can do?" Pepper asked.

"Stay at the tower," Hill suggested.

"Grab a Taser if it would make you feel safer," Fury muttered. "Sounds like we have our work cut out for us, Hill. Set off alert alpha three tango delta and try and get ahold of Kifist for me. We will be in touch Miss Potts." With that the SHIELD logo took over the screen.

After a second, the SHIELD logo disappeared and the screens for Iron Man's view and the view of Tony inside the suit grew larger. Pepper watched as Iron Man tried to clear out the waves of oncoming attackers. The Hulk rampaged through the streets below as Iron Man blasted the enemy from flying above. Looking at the readouts, Tony was clearly under quite a bit of stress, but the suit did its best to alleviate the burden.

Pepper's phone rang and she answered it on the Bluetooth, "Pepper Potts."

"Pepper," Iron Man said into the phone, clearly relieved that she answered. "Thank god I got you on the first ring."

"You're busy Tony," Pepper said as she saw him take out another twelve of the enemy in a single blast. "What do you need?"

"Blueprint of the building I'm outside of. 226 Fifth street." Iron Man said. "On the table down in my lab. Can you lay it out so Jarvis can scan it for me? Now. Please."

"I'm on it," Pepper said as she kicked off her shoes and took off at a run towards the elevator. Jarvis opened the door so that she didn't have to slow down for them. Once inside she punched the key in for the required floor and waited to take off again. She rocketed out of the elevator once the doors opened wide enough for her to fit through. She reached the table and spread open the blueprints wide. "Jarvis, scan this and create a virtual 3D model. Send it to Iron Man once complete."

"Scanning…" Jarvis answered her as the AI sent its blue beam gliding over top of the paper. "Complete. Sending… complete."

"Tony, did you get it?" Pepper asked as she ran back to the elevator which whisked her away back to the floor from which she came.

"Yeah," replied a strained Iron Man. "Thanks. Captain, I got the blue prints."

"Great," Captain America responded over the communication system. Pepper assumed that for some reason Tony had patched her through. "Thor and Hulk, stay outside. Iron Man, Hawkeye, Widow and I will all enter the building and try to find the people inside the building and lead them out to safety."

"Are we all going in through the main entrance?" the Black Widow asked.

Captain America sighed in thought, "Good point. Let's split up."

"There's a roof entrance," Iron Man said. "Widow and Hawk enter there. Cap and I will head to basement to start there. We'll meet in the middle."

Pepper watched as Iron Man blew another enemy target to smithereens before he turned and headed towards the entrance to the building. He landed right next to the star-spangled captain. They looked at each other, nodded, and entered.

The building seemed oddly dark for an office building. A bad feeling rose in the pit of Pepper's stomach; something was about to go wrong. A set of double doors in front of the super hero team were off of their hinges and were slightly skewed.

"Tony, be careful," Pepper muttered under her breath.

"Pep, I got this," Iron Man responded with an audible smirk. Pepper put a hand over her mouth; she had forgotten that he could hear her. She watched as the Captain picked up the doors and propped them up against the wall nearby. The two continued down the hall and to the stairs that lead to the basement. On the wall the words "CAUTION: AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL ONLY" were pained taking up the entire wall.

"You think we are authorized?" Iron Man joked, clearly trying to lighten the mood a bit. He was met with a stone cold glare from the Captain who secured his shield on his arm.

Pepper jumped at the sound of a large explosion in the distance. The sound itself didn't freak her it out, it was the flash of light that accompanied it on the Iron Man screen before it went blank.

All of her video feeds and readouts were blank.

"Tony?"

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**Love me, Hate me, either way: REVIEW. Thank you. **


	8. Chapter 8

**AH! Between moving out of dorm, starting work, exams and a paper that needs attention, I honestly didn't think I would get this done before Friday (can you say "excited?!"). But here it is. The last chapter. Please review it. And don't forget the next chapter which will be the authors note for the end (as I always do). Love you all! Enjoy it!**

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Pepper sat on the couch with the news coverage of the "latest Avengers Battle for New York" on the television and her laptop next to her on Twitter watching the trends. She took a deep breath and closed her eyes for a moment, trying to calm her shaking hands.

It had been an hour since the last transmission. Since the explosion.

Agent Maria Hill had called not long after the explosion, "Miss Potts?"

"Yes?" Pepper's voice had answered the phone, shaking and high pitched, fearing the worst.

"Director Fury wanted me to inform you that they are all alive. The explosion did not kill them," Hill explained.

Pepper had sighed and sank to the floor in relief. She had taken a second before she asked, "What happened? I heard the explosion from here…"

"One of the enemy combatants had gotten down to one of the labs. A group of the doctors had crudely created a bomb in an attempt to create an opening from which they could escape," Hill had reported. "It was effective although it had caught us off guard. People got bounced around quite a bit, some injuries of course, but the only death was that of the enemy."

Pepper had nodded, thinking through what she was being told. She had noticed that something was missing from the story. "Why did Tony's transmissions cut out? I don't have any reading from the suit. Even the video cut out."

Maria had clearly hesitated, "As I said, there were injuries."

"What happened?"

"No one…"

Pepper had cut her off, "Either you tell me what happened to Tony or I will go down there myself to find out."

"We aren't entirely sure," Hill had finally answered. "We regained contact with Captain Rogers. He reported that Stark had been thrown against a wall and was unconscious. He took off the Iron Man face plate and confirmed that he was still breathing. After a minute, Stark regained consciousness and protested rather loudly as Thor helped him out of the building to get looked over by the EMTs."

"Thank you, Agent Hill, for keeping me informed," Pepper had said after a moment. "Is there anything I can do?"

"Do not talk to the press," Hill had answered sternly as if it was an order.

"I wouldn't dream of it."

Pepper knew that the news she was watching had major flaws in it, but given the demand for information in a short amount of time, it didn't surprise her. One source at one point had said that Loki was back for vengeance. Another group thought that the Avengers had set the whole thing up to try and gain more publicity (as if they had needed more of that).

"Miss Potts, the Avengers are in the lobby approaching the elevator," Jarvis said causing Pepper to jump. Given the injuries that Tony had gained she was surprised they weren't at the hospital or stuck in the medical wing of SHIELD or something.

"Thank you Jarvis," Pepper replied. "Mute," she told the television and she closed out of Twitter, pulling up her Facebook so that she looked busy.

The Avengers practically tumbled out of the elevator all clearly battle worn. A layer of filth from the battle covered them all from head to toe. Clearly they all had frowns on their faces, not to mention the individual injuries they had acquired. Steve was covered in dirt with a few visible scrapes and bruises with nothing too bad showing. Clint winced a little as he swung his quiver off of shoulder and placed it on the ground. Natasha's arm was in a sling and she seemed uncomfortable as she tried to move it. Banner walked in with a hand on his head and without a shirt. Lastly Thor came in helping Tony walk into the room. Pepper gasped at the sight of the great Tony Stark. He had a blood soaked bandage on his head and he limped as he walked, hence Thor's assistance. Pepper rushed over to try and help get Tony over to the couch.

"I'm fine," Tony said as he pushed Pepper and Thor away. "It was just a tap on the head." He limped himself over to the couch and sat down.

"Don't you want to get out of the suit?" Pepper asked.

"He wouldn't be able to walk a straight line without it," Natasha said as she moved to take a seat on the ottoman. "He should be at the hospital…"

"Seriously, I'm alright guys," Stark said with a dismissive wave. "Jarvis can monitor me. And I have Banner here don't I?"

"Given my current state," Bruce sighed, "I wouldn't even be recommended to monitor a bunny."

Pepper shook her head and explained, "He doesn't do hospitals." _Not even after Afghanistan_ she thought to herself. She turned to the clearly worn out Avengers, "who needs what? Natasha? Clint?"

Natasha hesitated, "Advil and water would be great."

"Same here."

Banner stood up, "I'm going to make some tea. Anyone else want some?"

"Tea sounds good," Steve nodded in reply. "Need any help?"

"No, I got it," Banner said as he stood up and started off towards the kitchen.

Pepper ran over to the bar and grabbed the bottles of water out of the mini-fridge as well as the bottle of ibuprofen on the counter and brought them back to the assembled heroes. She placed it all down on the coffee table and looked at the team. "Everyone take a bottle of water and drink it please. The last thing we need is a bunch of dehydrated heroes. Ibuprofen is on the table. If you need anything else, Jarvis will be happy to help I am sure. Plus if you need or want a shower, there is one down one floor you are welcome to use."

"Where are you going?"

Pepper looked at Tony, "I'm going to get Tony out of the suit and have Jarvis run a scan to make sure he's okay. Shouldn't take too long, but it looks like he could use the help."

Tony smiled and waved a hand, "You worry too much. I don't need to get looked over."

Pepper grabbed his hand and hoisted him on to his feet, "Hill called. I know about the concussion. This really isn't open for discussion."

Tony Stark stopped audibly arguing and allowed Pepper to lead him to the elevator where Jarvis whisked them away. Tony leaned over and kissed Pepper on the head, "you do realize that you are acting like the 'team mom' for the Avengers, right?'"

"Well it's not like there's anything else for me to do to help," Pepper said with a reluctant smile. "Besides, someone has to take care of all of you."

The elevator doors opened and the two headed towards the hallway, Tony with an arm over Pepper's shoulders using her as a crutch. Pepper's eyes shifted towards the man in the suit, trying to be discrete. The great Tony Stark winced a little with every step and his eyes seemed unfocused. She wished that Tony would have gone to get checked by a real medical team, but as always Tony wanted to stay behind his mask.

Tony and Pepper finally found themselves in the middle of the bedroom. Tony moved Pepper in front of him and the two looked each other over. Pepper could tell that he was clearly thinking something, although his eyes gave away that his mind wasn't working at its normal speed.

"Jarvis, get me out of this suit," Stark finally called. "And run a health screen while you're at it please."

"As you wish, sir," responded Jarvis. "Miss Potts, if you could please step back."

Pepper smiled shyly before stepping back, not realizing how close she has been standing to the billionaire. Jarvis set to work to remove the suit as swiftly yet gently as possible. Pepper couldn't help but gasp as the removal of the suit showed massive bruises all along his arm and side.

"It looks worse than it is," Stark said after a moment.

Pepper's eyes were wide, "When Hill said you had gotten knocked across the room, I knew it had to have been bad. But this…"

"Pep, I'm not kidding, I'm fine," Tony said reassuringly. "I've come back from way worse than this. Seriously, I'm good as new. Give me a few days and everything will be back to normal. Well, we never were normal to begin with if you are honest with yourself, but you know what I mean," smirked Tony.

Pepper said, "'Normal'. We have a WWII hero in our living room who was frozen for 70 years. There's a scientist who can turn into a raging big green… thing without warning in the labs. There's a god who can wield lightning in the kitchen. Not to mention the two spies running around a building with some of Stark Industries most guarded secrets. It's like a circus."

"This sounds like a horribly twisted children's book," Tony cut in. "You've ran circuses before," he pointed out. "You've been with me for how many years?"

"It's the battling circus that will take some time to get used to," Pepper admitted.

Stark laughed, causing him to wince a little. "Trust me; it's going to take some getting used to on my end of this as well."

"Did you guys get the bad guy?" Pepper asked after a moment.

"We demolished his army and got the doctors to safety," Tony reported. "Sadly we couldn't get a trace on where this Kifist guy was. SHEILD said they'll take it from here."

"Are you going to let them?"

He let out a harsh laugh, "You say that like I haven't already started my own search. We all decided to take the night off to regroup and then we'll see where we are going."

"I appreciate that."

Jarvis cut in, "Sir, may I enquire what your name is?"

"Anthony Edward Stark," he answered bored.

"And how did you sustain your injuries?"

"A bomb exploded in the building I was in. The blast threw me across the room and into a wall which has led to bruising and a concussion. I was looked over at the scene."

"Thank you, continuing scan."

The two were silent for a moment as the last of the Iron Man suit came off. Pepper was silently glad that Jarvis had been able to tell that slow and gentle was a good plan for the removal. The fact that he was this banged up after the fight with the suit protecting him spoke wonders. If the suit hadn't been protecting him, he might not have made it back. She could tell that the suit was a mess and would require days' worth of repair work. Considering who would be doing the repairs, she could expect it to take twice as long because Stark would take the chance to upgrade features that he deemed important.

"I'm thinking about inviting the team to stay here," Tony said pulling Pepper from her thoughts.

"All of them?"

"Why not? It could be fun. Besides, it's not like everyone would always be here. I'm sure Thor would want to go back to New Mexico as well as his home. And Romanoff and Barton would still have to work for SHIELD which can require them to fall of the face of the Earth at times. Plus Rogers has been talking about taking a trip across America… but it could be nice to have this as a base for the Avengers or something…"

Pepper smiled, "Even with a concussion, you're scheming."

"Not scheming, planning."

"Health scan complete" Jarvis chimed in after a minute. "You have a concussion and bruising, but nothing more serious. Expectation is for you to be sore for a couple of days, sir, but nothing life threatening."

"How should we treat this Jarvis?" Pepper asked.

"Sleep is recommended with waking up at set intervals increasing in duration as time goes on," responded Jarvis. "Shall I set the alarm?"

"That sounds wonderful," Pepper responded. She walked over and gingerly tried to help lead Tony over towards the bed. He laid down on the bed, wincing as he did so.

"Do you need anything else?" Pepper asked after a moment with a small smile.

"I have you," Tony Stark said with a dazzling smile, "What more could I possibly need?"

Pepper laughed, "You clearly have a concussion. I'll come back up to check on you. Would that be all Mr. Stark?"

Tony closed his eyes, still smiling, "That would be all Miss Potts."

Pepper left and closed the door behind her. She smiled as she walked towards the elevator, heading back to check with the other Avengers. Tony had a knack for keeping her life interesting and it now was evident that he was going to have help in that occurring. But in the end, she wouldn't have wanted it any other way. Tony's world grew, and that led to hers growing as well. Their little family had grown to include the whole Avengers team, and she didn't want it any other way.

She sighed with a smile as she entered the elevator to go check on the family, "Welcome home Miss Potts."

* * *

**Review! Even if you aren't a member.  
I see how many of you are following and favorite. Please write me a review of this ending.**


	9. Author's Note

**Author's note guys!**

**First of all: THANK YOU ALL: for the amazing response I have gotten from all of you. The fact that you have read this to begin with is amazing. The support and interest in this story have made my day so many times this year that you have no idea. **

**Next is for the special thanks: to my sister for prompting me to start this chaos. To my dad for reading at least parts of this. It still catches me off guard that you did that. To my roommate and friends for not judging my weird nerd tendencies such as this as well as for getting excited for me when you really didn't know what was going on. To my boyfriend who (after much prompting) read and helped me with this. **

**Now for random comments:**

**SPOILER (yeah I know about Coulson lives. For the sake of this, I ignored it because I'm not sure what they are going to do with that and the Avengers anyway).**

**For people that were like: "Tony and Pep are engaged": I'd like to just say that that is speculation at this point… although itd be cool to be correct**

**For people that wanted more from the Avenger's point of view: I promise to one day write a fic that does that, but that was not the point of this story. Pepper is the reason this story exists and therefore following her and her thoughts was the way to go**

**I apologize for the fact that after we all see Iron Man 3 this wont make a whole lot of sense or seem out of character. There wasn't a way to know where the movie was going until I was well into this fic. Yes, it'll bug me, but that's what we get for writing fics for stories with sequels coming out. **

**Five shouts of joy for the fact that this was my first story written in college! YAY!**

**For people that were wondering: yeah, I intentionally let "the bad guy" get away. This is because if I decide to write another fic in the future, I already have a launching pad for it.**

**Throughout the writing of this story, I learned a lot about myself as Theaterinspired. When I started writing I never imagined that this sort of thing would become part of who I am to the degree that it has. Thanks all so much! **

**Thanks everyone so much for reading and reviews. You have no idea how much it all means for me. Thanks to all of you, the view totals for 2 months hit personal records. I think you are all awesome and I appreciate you sticking with me for this adventure. I cannot thank you enough!**

**Forever yours, Theaterinspired**


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